Mickelson Ties Lehman at 63

Phil Mickelson seems to have regained his touch at the Phoenix Open.

A late starter, Mickelson shot an eight-under-par 63 on Thursday at Scottsdale, Ariz., to tie Tom Lehman for the first-round lead and leave everybody else at least three strokes behind.

It was a 17-shot turnaround for Mickelson at the 7,083-yard TPC of Scottsdale course. Last year, he finished with an 80 and settled for 61st place, and the year before he tied for 58th.

The 1999 tournament was a preface for a so-so year by Mickelson’s standards--he failed to win for the first time since 1992 but was still 14th on the money list.

Mickelson and Lehman, both Scottsdale residents, had eight birdies and no bogeys in their best performances at their hometown tournament.

David Duval heads a group of four at 66.

Notes

A New Jersey appeals court departed from standard sports liability law to conclude that hitting a golf ball without warning is a recklessly dangerous act. The case was brought by a Livingston man, Jeffrey Schick, who was struck in the face by a golf ball while playing at East Orange Golf Course in 1994. Schick filed a lawsuit against John Ferolito of Short Hills, claiming Ferolito’s mulligan shot was made without proper warning and that Schick could not have been reasonably expected to foresee the danger. This point about foreseeing the danger lies at the heart of court rulings regarding sports injuries. Generally, if the risk of an injury is foreseeable, the courts have dismissed lawsuits.